Incorrigibility
In philosophy,
incorrigibility is a property of a philosophical proposition, which implies that it is necessarily true simply by virtue of being believed. A common example of such a proposition is René Descartes' "cogito ergo sum". Johnathan Harrison has argued that "incorrigible" may be the wrong term, since it seems to imply a sense that the beliefs cannot be
changed, which isn't actually true. In Harrison's view, the incorrigibility of a proposition actually implies something about the nature of
believing—for example, that one must exist in order to believe—rather than the nature of the proposition itself. For illustration, consider Descartes': I think, therefore I exist. Stated in incorrigible form, this could be: "That I believe that I exist implies that my belief is true." Harrison argues that a belief being true is really only incidental to the matter, that really what the cogito proves is that
belief implies
existence. One could equally well say, "That I believe God exists implies that I exist." or "That I believe I do not exist implies that my belief is false."—and these would have the same essential meaning as the cogito.